VIDEO

Top Three Tips for Procurement AI Adoption

September 2025

“Everyone’s talking about AI and Gen AI in procurement. But the real question is, where do you even begin?” ArcBlue’s Palak Khanna shares her top three tips for procurement professionals beginning their AI journey.

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Transcript

Palak: Everyone’s talking about AI and Gen AI in procurement. But the real question is, where do you even begin?

I’ve been asked this question many times, so here are my top three.

First, fix the basics. Procurement data, processes, workflows, and your SOPs are often a mess, and AI cannot magically just fix poor foundations. Before AI, fix the foundations. Otherwise, AI is only going to amplify that mess.

Strong foundations, when plugged into LLMs and AI tools, translate into meaningful output.

Second, be bold enough to take that first step. You don’t need to be a trailblazing innovator or an AI guru, but the break-neck speed at which AI is advancing, procurement leaders today cannot afford to be laggards. You cannot sit on the sidelines waiting for that perfect business strategy. Pick a use case or or two, run with a proof of concept and then use that momentum to scale.

Start small if you need to, but most importantly, start.

Three, think adoption, not just tech. AI, without a doubt, fails when it stays in pilots. Success is when your people are actually using it, so bake it into your business as usual. Train your team, focus on change management, focus on adoption so that AI becomes a part of your day-to-day work.

There you go. Those are my top three.

If you are in your early stages of AI adoption or if you’re thinking about it, I’d like to hear.

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